Mobile devices may travel together in groups, e.g., when users of the mobile device are traveling in an automobile, airplane, or other vehicle. The mobile devices receive voice and data by way of a wireless service provider such as AT&T™ or VERIZON™, or by satellite. When the mobile communication device is a dedicated component in the vehicle, the vehicle may be referred to as a “connected vehicle.” In such environments, each mobile device in the vehicle may communicate by way of the dedicated component which itself has a dedicated communication channel for communication with a roadside unit, a cellular base station, or satellite. These techniques may be applied to, e.g., police and fire fighting teams that may require mobile or portable connectivity to a network such as the Internet. Such emergency teams may also employ wired or wireless connections within an on-site command post.
In the above-described environments, it may be desirable to use a limited number of connections, e.g., one or two, to provide network connectivity to various individuals in a collection of users such as a firefighting team or airline passengers aboard a flight. In order to provide network connectivity when the number of users exceeds the number of physical network connections special, software and/or hardware may be needed. However, specialized software and hardware require expensive customizations that are not readily deployable when compared to off-the-shelf software and hardware.